The Local Independent Online News Publishers (LION) will be at a new venue for its annual conference: Music City in Nashville, Tenn. The LION Summit will take place from Thursday through Saturday, October 24 to 26, 2019, with a great lineup of training, panel discussions, breakouts, keynote conversations and the unconference on Saturday afternoon. LION members and non-members in the local news community will participate in dozens of informative sessions aimed at providing both veteran and novice online news publishers with ideas for boosting revenues, deepening community engagement, deploying tools and more.

LION Publishers has nearly 250 members in 47 states and Washington, D.C., representing both for-profit and nonprofit business models — all independently owned and operated and devoted to local journalism. Register for the Summit now!

Come See Nashville

With more than 100 new restaurants and bars added in 2017 alone, plus myriad attractions that include the Nashville Studio Tour and the Frist Art Museum—it’s no wonder that Nashville was named “The Hottest Travel Destination of 2018.” Attendees at the LION Summit will get to enjoy all that Nashville has to offer, including two receptions out on the town during the Summit.

Speakers & Programs

We have three days of great programming lined up for the Summit! On Thursday, we’ll have a full day of workshops and training, covering everything from Instagram to Google Analytics to newsletters and photography. Pick and choose what fits for your organization in our three tracks of training: Content, Business and Marketing. On Friday, we will have a series of panels and speakers, highlighted by our keynote Elizabeth Green of the American Journalism Project and Chalkbeat, panels on collaboration and texting the news, and a special reception and first ever LION Awards Show. On Saturday, we’ll have our second keynote Roxann Stafford of the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund, along with the popular “30 Ideas in 30 Minutes” session and the “unconference” where you get to choose the topics to discuss.

See the entire agenda for the LION Summit.

LION Awards Show

For the first time, we’ve added a new LION Publishers Awards to our program, to recognize excellence in journalism, business and technology at local independent online news publishers. The Awards are open to LION members only, except for the LION Service Award, which is open to vendors who serve LION members. Independent judges will put a special emphasis on entries that rise above the ordinary, show an entrepreneurial spirit and provide a blueprint for other publishers in the field. Finalists for the Awards will be announced before the Summit, and winners will be honored at the LION Awards Show at the Summit on Friday evening. Note that you will need to buy a $30 ticket to attend the LION Awards Show dinner and reception on Friday night.

Learn more about our award finalists here!

Hotels and Getting There

We have reserved three hotel blocks near the conference venue for your convenience – and with discounted rates. Make sure to reserve your hotel fast to make sure you can join our blocks, especially with a home Tennessee Titans game taking place the same weekend. We also have an area map and information on getting to the venue to enjoy the Summit.

Check out our page on accommodations and getting to the Summit.

Our Privacy Policy

We hold ourselves to the highest standard when it comes to handling your personal information. Here's our policy on sharing attendee information at our conference.